JUST IN: Mascot Uzor Kalu emerges APC flag bearer

Mascot Uzor Kalu, the younger brother of Senate Chief Whip Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has been elected as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Aba North/South Federal Constituency bye-election.

On March 27, the election will be held in the two cosmopolitan cities that serve as Abia State’s commercial center.

Senator Theodore Ahamefule Orji, Senator Kalu’s younger brother and Chief of Staff to the incumbent Abia Central Senatorial Lawmaker, was the party’s sole nominee. From the votes cast in the 24 wards of the Aba North and South LGAs, he received a total of 47, 225 votes.

Only Mascot Uzor Kalu was cleared for the race, according to the chairman of the APC primary election committee, Barr. Bisi Idaomi, while another aspirant, Ogbonnaya Nwokeocha Eze, was excluded by both the screening and appeal committees.

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“The National Leadership of the party made it clear to the Committee Members that they were not to do any affirmation. We were given result sheets and told to go to the 24 wards, 12 in the north and 12 in the south, and based on the results, Mascot Uzor Kalu won by a large margin,” Idaomi explained.

Kalu said in an interview after his declaration that being the APC’s flag bearer means they are closer to achieving the party’s goals of representing Aba North and South in the federal House of Representatives.

Kalu, who was also the APC flag bearer for Aba North and South Federal Constituency in the last general election in 2019, said the party is stronger now than it was then, and expressed optimism that he will win the seat this time.

Senator Kalu’s brother, who urged other disgruntled members of the party to put down their swords and join the march to deliver the party on March 27, promised that the people of Aba North and South would never regret electing him to represent them in the National Assembly’s Green Chamber.

Comrade Benedict Godson, the party’s Publicity Secretary, also stated that the party is confident that Mascot Uzor Kalu will deliver the support that the people of Aba North and South Federal Constituency have for their House of Representatives candidate.